UQ Holder Manga Chapter 15 Review (Time for an idiot to learn something new.)

ユーキューホルダー!/UQ Holder Chapter 15 Review

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis: 

In a jumping contest, Touta jumps far higher than Kuroumaru. Touta is shown to be strong enough to easily lift a large tow truck. In a running contest, Touta is shown to be faster than Kuroumaru. Karin acknowledges Touta is unusually proficient in ki (chi), but she orders Touta to arm wrestle Kuroumaru, in which Touta loses easily. Karin smugly tells him she's next, and she smokes Touta in arm wrestling, meaning Touta is stuck cooking the meals, which the kids appreciate since he's a good cook.

During the meal, Karin concedes that his cooking is quite good, so she suggests he do this for the rest of eternity. Kuroumaru and Karin decide that they should use arm wrestling from now on to determine who will cook. Even though Touta doesn't want to learn shundo, he hates losing, so he decides to take Karin's suggestion to become better at it if he wants to win at arm wrestling.

Touta goes off and practices what he's observed others do, feeling pretty good. However, he's watched by another guy who's irritated by what he observes. He punches Touta, telling him he's got shundo wrong, then tries to explain the basics to Touta. The man points to the dust clouds as proof that Touta is no good at shundo.

After giving a demo, Touta is impressed and decides he has been underestimating shundo. He wants to know what shundo has to do with arm wrestling. After Touta mentions that he's only been doing shundo for a few days after having first seen it a month earlier, the man decides Touta is actually a genius. The man tries to explain how the shundo technique works in regards to arm wresting, but Touta thinks it is a load of crap. The man punishes him for this, then proceeds to show off more uses for shundo, including midair shundo.

With that, the "martial artist Kaito" tells Touta that he'll teach him one of the two shundo tricks for him to master.

Thoughts/Review:

Karin pretty much steals the show when she's doing stuff on panel. Her smug look when she told Touta that she was next for an arm wrestling challenge was pretty awesome. Her laying the smack down on him added to that. Then the way she acknowledged his cooking abilities just dripped of snark while being sincere in her compliment. That level of awesomeness doesn't come about every day.

As for Touta, Akamatsu-sensei had already established that Touta pretty much sees something and can instantly do it. With this chapter, Akamatsu-sensei takes the time to spell it out in black and white -- Touta has an abnormal proficiency with ki (chi) usage as well as his abnormal ability to learn things by watching others rather than go through formal training.

Akamatsu-sensei does appear to be shifting Touta's attitude though. Until now, he'd been opposed to learning combat skills. He has trained in some things, like sword usage, but when he was given a chance to learn shundo, he declined. 

Bring in Kaito, who may be a random so-and-so or may be something specific, who happens to be an expert in shundo, sees Touta doing shundo moves in a poor fashion, then takes it upon himself to educate the mindless moron. I'm too tired to speculate on Kaito's motivation, but as far as Touta's concerned, seeing him actually moved to want to learn proper use of shundo is a new development. Hopefully, Akamatsu-sensei will continue to cause Touta to grow as a character.

Finally, I did notice (and thanks to Hata for alerting me it would show up) that Kuroumaru's compliment of Touta's cooking was the equivalent of a marriage proposal in Japan. Karin agreed with the remark, but though Touta is too thick to get such references, it is part of Akamatsu-sensei's setting up a harem of sorts for Touta.

If I'm not mistaken, the manga will have a break next week due to Weekly Shounen Magazine being off, then a chapter around Christmas before another break because of the manga magazine. So, until the spoilers come out... ^_^